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When we look back to the history of photography, its origins in Venezuela, its relationship with the press and the further development of the photographic language from a journalistic point of view, we realize that the relationship between photography and journalism has been very close for over a century. This relationship has not restricted the development of either one of them. Going all the way back, the press has fed from the photographers’ work without them complaining about their work being subordinated to the interests of the publications. In the beginning the photographer was independent from the medium in which he published his work. He made a living from his studio work. The confusion appears when the photographer starts to depend on the money of the publications. The development of the journalism industry pushed the photographer to join the newspapers teams. That thwarted his creative freedom. However, in time, this freedom has been recovered little by little. More than ever, this is why we believe that photo reporters are not journalists, even though they have to deal with journalistic concepts. This is partly caused by this specialization of capturing news worthy images. Neither we believe that is a good idea to call them ”graphic reporters” which we consider a label that diminishes their importance. This is a term that has put them on a professional limbo, marginalized from both journalism and photography and without the respect of their colleagues on either field. We think that, above all, the photo reporter is a photographer. His job is to produce photographs, some times this is done with a full creative autonomy. This kind of work is sustained by its credibility, the power of the image is conferred by the belief that the camera can not tell a lie. The specialty of the photo journalist is to exploit the credibility of photography for journalistic purposes. This mission can not be accomplished by mere intellect. It is the coming together of technique, emotion and reason. As Cartier-Bresson puts it: “Head, eye and heart are at the same level”. This specialized kind of photographers, from now on called ‘press photographers’ are generally freelancers, the scope of their work is both endless and precise: to get news material. There is also an element determined by the periodicity of the publication. Just as the advertising photographer has to be up to date and know the latest trends, to be better at his job, the press photographer has to know the facts and the people he is photographing, he has to master the technique and be up to date in the usages of the the journalistic photographic language. Sometimes, the job of the press photographers is to make a simple record of the facts without any aesthetic value. Their specialty is to sum up an event or a situation in a single image, this is the greatest achievement of a press photographer, that is why Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Jose Sarda are on a same level. If a picture is first published in a newspaper, that does not mean it can not be exhibited on a galley or published in a book. A good picture is a good picture and that’s that. And a good photographer is a good photographer on the street, in a studio or in a house. Some good journalistic photographs may lose part of their value when taken out of context, but will remain transcendent for being a unique document, like all photographs. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Send your comments on this review to: pedro.ruiz@sympatico.ca
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